Somerville’s current Zillow ZHVI typical city home value is about $941,330, while Zillow ZORI typical observed monthly market rent is about $3,589. Their pairing gives a 4.6% gross yield: annual ZORI divided by ZHVI before vacancy, management, repairs, taxes, insurance, utilities, financing and capital work. These are market indicators, not a property forecast. ZHVI equals 7.1x ACS median household income, while annual ZORI equals 32.5% of that income, signaling a high affordability hurdle and little room to confuse gross revenue with cash flow.
Somerville has 37,756 housing units; 65.8% of occupied units are renter-occupied, and citywide vacancy is 5.4%. The ACS median home value is $911,300 and median gross rent is $2,517, including contract rent and selected utilities. These surveyed occupied-housing measures differ in definition and period from Zillow’s typical value and observed market rent, so they should not be averaged or read as a direct spread. The median year built is 1938, warranting property-specific condition review without proving any building is obsolete.
Among cash-renting city households, 36.2% are rent-burdened; 14.7% of housing units are single-family and 16.4% are in large multifamily buildings. Of vacant units, 18.9% are classified as for rent, a survey reason share rather than available investment inventory. Population is 81,036, just 0.2% above the overlapping earlier ACS vintage; the change is not annualized and may reflect boundary effects. Median household income is $132,572, while poverty is 9.8% and unemployment is 3.0%. These citywide facts describe demand constraints and stock, not tenant quality, achievable rent or lease-up for a property.
At the county scope, Middlesex County’s median marketing time is 35 days and 14.8% of active listings have price reductions; county evidence frames transaction conditions, not Somerville liquidity. In the Boston metro, jobs declined 0.8% annually and 12,696 permits were recorded for the supplied period; metro evidence does not measure city demand or additions. The national Freddie Mac 30-year mortgage rate is 6.6%, a national financing benchmark rather than a borrower quote.
Key limitations are mixed measurement periods, citywide averages, survey uncertainty and a gross yield excluding every operating and financing cost. Before acting, verify the target’s purchase basis, legal unit count, leases, supported market rent, concessions, collections, vacancy, utilities, taxes, insurance, hazards, deferred maintenance, capital work, permitting, zoning and tenancy rules. Rebuild net operating income from documents, stress debt service with an actual lender quote, inspect the structure, and compare truly similar rentals and sales. No city, county, metro or national context substitutes for property-level diligence.